Officials scared of filing report

?Recently the Chief Secretary UP has also vide order No. 1809/23-12-2005 dated the 19th Oct. 2005 directed to form high level committee at the division level with Divisional Commissioner as Chairman and DIG Range and Chief Engineer PWD as members which would identify such Mafia groups and initiate effective administrative measures against them.

“Recently the Chief Secretary UP has also vide order No. 1809/23-12-2005 dated the 19th Oct. 2005 directed to form high level committee at the division level with Divisional Commissioner as Chairman and DIG Range and Chief Engineer PWD as members which would identify such Mafia groups and initiate effective administrative measures against them. Chief Secretary in the same letter has emphasized that in a few districts such as Ballia, Gonda, Sant Ravidas Nagar, Ambedkar Nagar, Etah etc., the menace of such Mafia groups has reached such a state that engineers could not discharge their duties properly.

In many districts, departmental officers are being threatened and even when such complaints have been received, no effective step has been taken by district administration.

In fact, it was submitted by various officers in the meeting that though such exercises to identify mafia groups have been undertaken in the past, they were infructuous because on account of apprehension most of the officers preferred to remain silent and did not register FIR or lodge complaints. In a high level meeting on 22-11-98 by the then Chief Secretary, it was decided to constitute a group under the chairmanship of the then Commissioner Allahabad, Shri VK Sharma to suggest strategies against mafia groups which influence award of various govt. contracts.

Hon’ble Chief Minister has recently given a clarion call to break the mafia- political nexus and exhorted the judiciary to help prevent criminalization of politics. Addressing the 38th Annual Convention of Uttar Pradesh Judicial Service Association on the 15th April, 2006, Hon’ble CM expressed his serious concern over criminals increasingly getting entry into politics by money and muscle power.